All Ado About Food, Point Blank with Asian Weekly 17th March 2017

24Mar

When was the last time you had a fight over food? Not literally but just when you are ordering it. Each member on the table most certainly has a different taste and they want their preferences. One of my favourites is not including onions in my dishes.

But when was the last time you heard a food drama happen just because a President said so? Yes, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson President of Iceland got the attention when he said he would rather not have any pineapple toppings on his pizza and if he would have it his way, he would go ahead and even make a public ban. It was not long before the Internet world jeered or cheered him and the “pizza debate” was off to a hot chunky start. While many are used to the “Trump State of Mind” it was a change to hear another Head of State speak his mind.

However, President Guðni, later clarified on Facebook, saying “I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on their pizza,” he wrote. “I am glad I do not hold such power. Presidents should not have unlimited power.” Really how much power should Presidents have?

Let’s start with your immediate president, yes your Boss, CEO, MD or whatever you call him or her. They play a major role in the first order of business, what the employees get to wear, eat, drink or talk. Yes there are some obsessed directors who want to control every moment, movement and mood of their employees. Here, the pizza debate is far from even reaching an office desk. But then there are those who a trying to run a democratic empire and leave the beings to be but still pass on indirect message. As we speak there is a current debate about the headscarves once again stirred up where the European Union Court has ruled that wearing headscarves at work is illegal and that any other political or especially religious symbols are not to be allowed.

Getting back to food, there are also those bosses who do not allow non-veg foods in their kitchens and so forth. Here is the thing, create an environmentally friendly structure. You have to realize your employees or workers in this case are almost giving you about 8 to 10 hours of their active life, make it worth it for them. They too need to reciprocate and not abuse. The Head of State should not be able to influence the ice cream flavor of the month, but he should be able to make food prices friendlier and balance out inflation, standard and quality of living.

Australia is facing its own turmoil, through a beer campaign, which has run dry after it hit a rainbow. A beer company release an advert sponsored by the Bible Society where two Liberal MPs are discussing the “heavy” topic of same-sex marriage. This entire episode has not gone down well with consumers or any type of audience. This is an almost unusual mix of Members of Parliament discussing a serious topic and having product placement involved. The owners of the beer company say they did not approve the advert and that they support the Bible Society as a philanthropic project.

Basically, in a world where we are faced with the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945 according the United Nations and that even Kenya is struggling through drought and hunger, we have better ways of getting attention to the food problems. Let the pineapple toppings feed the world or the beer make people merry but not let all food go down a rubbish debate or bin and leave others hangry!